Managerial Excellence - an in Basket Exercise on Managerial Decision Making

...

The change process had begun and Radha Ram could sense some positive vibes, but he feared that his top management officials were not understanding the magnitude of the market demand and were not as proactive as he would have liked them to be. He felt that they top officials avoided responsibility, did not take initiative and did not take any decisions. There was a culture of fear of change. Though he never even for once doubted their commitment for the organization or for the task that they performed. However the pace of change in the group and as desired by hime were different.

As a management student, what would you recommend to Radha Ram? How should he create an active participation of people for this change process. What motivational theories can you use for improving efficiency of Radha Ram

Facilitator’s Case Discussion Points: Attitude Change, Phasing out of change process, Managing change with low capability team

4. A CASE OF SAKET PACKAGING UNIT

Saket Packaging unit was a carton manufacturing unit in VATVA, Ahmedabad. The unit had 4 major machine. The first machine where paper was loaded and corrugated. This was the easiest task. Once the corrugated sheets were obtained as per the thickness stipulated by the customer (05. Cm or 1 cm) the next machine was used for cutting it in the size for the customer. At third machine the corrugated piece was labelled/ printed or dyed. Finally it was stapled by folding the cut pieces and giving it a 3D shape.

Stapling was by far the most critical part of the process. The staple provided the strength and if done well, ensured that the carton shape would be retained and carton would be able to undertake the load that the customer desired.

The unit employed 4-5 workers, each working on one machine, and one who helped in coordination, loading and unloading. The labor who managed the stapling machine was the oldest in the system and had become a union leader of the area. He understood that his job was the most critical job and therefore he would go off on leave unannounced and sometimes when critical client requirements which had to be delivered fast existed.

This labor had emerged as a powerful man and held the owners at the ransom. Every time he used these opportunity to increase his salary.

What would you suggest to the owners as an MBA student?

Sir, this is an independent case that I was writing for International HRM digest (Emerald). Do you think it reads well?

7. INTRAPRENEURSHIP AS A TOOL FOR MOTIVATING EMPLOYEES

SG hosiery was established by Mr. Shyam Gopal at Ahmedabad. The firm manufactured T shirts on demand for schools, colleges, corporates, event management companies etc.

Pintoos, GR brothers and some other children boutiques of Ahmedabad were their regular customers. Besides they also entertained some direct orders from schools, corporates and event management companies.

The manufacturing process was done at four location. Three of which were in Ahmedabad and one was in Ludhiana. Each location had six machines each where stitching was done. There was a dedicated branding and packaging unit at the outskirts of Ahmedabad where branding, labelling, price label etc. were put on the T Shirts.

The manufacturing work involved getting a hosiery yarn which was typically purchased from Ludhiana or Surat and was cut and stitched at SG Hosiery. The sizes, colors and style for the T shirts were provided by the customer.

The critical point in the manufacturing process was the cloth cutting. If cutting was optimally done, it reduced wastage of yarn and added to profits. Three master tailors, who were adept at identifying ways in which minimum cloth was wasted were dedicated for this job. All three of them had been loyal tailors at SG Hosiery for more than 20 years and were extremely thankful to Shyam Gopal ji for his personalized care and they worked more because of their gratitude for Shyam Gopalji than anything else. Besides, work itself was meaningful for them.

They worked on fixed salary. The master tailor was also responsible for quality checking in terms of loose ends, threads, unstitched joints etc. stitching was done in batch process. If one machine was being used for stitching sleeves, a dedicated employee stitched just the sleeves the entire day on that machine, similarly a dedicated machine was there for collars, seems, and side stitching. This improved efficiency and time loss. But made the job very routine.

The job workers on machine worked on fixed salary which was not the norm in this industry. Depending upon the efficiency of the worker SG paid 18-20 Rs, per T shirt but a guaranteed 10 T shirt per day. So even if there was no work the employee could get 5500-6000 Rs per month. Most competitors hired job workers on per piece rate and incentivized if the worker produced more than 10 T shirts in a day. Per T shirt rate was 30 Rs. An employee making 10 T shirts could easily earn an average of 6-8 K every month. However in per piece wage system, the vagary was that this was a seasonal business, for example in summers when schools reopen there was a rush for school T shirts and then this demand declined as the academic year progressed, similarly during festival times, the demand for event T shirts was higher. So there were lean and peak months, in some months the worker could go down to as low as 1500 a month also. But, averaged out salary was 6-8 K.

Instead SG workers were paid a fixed salary of 6000 per month and incentivized if they produced more than 60 T shirts in a month. This was on the lower end but was assured income for the employees. The benefit to the worker was that it gave him an assured income every month, so even if there was no work, he could still earn, also in festival and school season, a worker could easily earn incentives. Master tailor was paid 18000 pm

In 2012 Sidhhartha Gopal, the eldest son of Mr. Shyam Gopal completed his masters in MBA and joined the business. Sidhhartha realized that all 18machines were getting old and machine maintenance was taking a lot of time and cost and the downtime thus, was leading to some losses as well.

He wanted to rampup the business.

In an attempt to reward the master tailors and increase their obligation towards the firm, Siddhartha replaced all machines with new machines. Along with it he developed a sharing plan with the master tailors. Promoting them as an entrepreneur of some sort. The job unit centre’s responsibility